Third night of US protests against police killings

NEW YORK: Thousands of demonstrators marched in major cities across the United States on Friday in a fresh wave of protests against a spate of killings of unarmed black men by white police officers.

The signs of growing discontent took place as a New York prosecutor said that a grand jury would consider charges in one of the cases that has again brought to the fore the distrust felt by many African Americans towards the police.

Akai Gurley, 28, a father of a young daughter, was shot dead when a police officer opened fire in a dimly lit staircase at a Brooklyn apartment building as he walked with his girlfriend late on November 20.

Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said he would present all the evidence for a grand jury to decide whether charges should be brought.

“It is important to get to the bottom of what happened,” he said, giving no timetable for the jury to be appointed, nor for a decision to be reached.

“I pledge to conduct a full and fair investigation and to give the grand jury all of the information necessary to do its job. That information is still being gathered,” Thompson said.

New York’s police commissioner has said Gurley was a totally innocent victim and the family, who gathered for a private wake on Friday night ahead of the funeral on Saturday, has demanded justice.

Protesters have hit the streets after grand juries declined to press charges against white officers responsible for the August 9 shooting death of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the July 17 chokehold death of black father-of-six Eric Garner in New York.

Several hundred protesters staged further rallies in New York on a rainy and chilly Friday night, gathering across the city shouting “I can’t breathe” as they mingled with commuters, tourists and holiday shoppers.

Those were the final words gasped by Garner, a 43-year-old asthma sufferer, as police wrestled and held him to the ground in New York’s Staten Island.

Other demonstrators stayed “die-ins,” by lying on the ground at Columbia University, Grand Central Station and after pouring into Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square and the Apple store on Fifth Avenue.

Other protests were reported elsewhere across the United States including in Miami, Chicago, Boston, New Orleans and Washington, DC.

It was the first time the demonstrations demanding justice had taken to the streets in Miami, where protesters blocked traffic, while in the US capital some people staged a “die-in” on the roads.